An investigation into Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer by her department’s inspector general has found evidence that she took staff to a strip club during an official work trip, according to a report.
Chavez DeRemer was on a five-day visit to her home state of Oregon last spring to meet with Gov. Tina Kotek and the CEO of a local truck manufacturing business and to tour an Intel chip plant when her team took time off to go to the Angels PDX club outside of Portland on April 18, The New York Post reports.
Travel vouchers show the total cost of the trip to Oregon for U.S. taxpayers was $2,890.06, which included $1,324.21 for transportation, $722 for lodging, $655 for meals, and $188.35 for miscellaneous expenses, according to the Post.
“Secretary Chavez-DeRemer firmly denies any allegations of wrongdoing,” her attorney, Dr Nick Oberheiden, said in a statement in response to the strip club allegation.
“Her utmost priority remains to advance President Trump’s agenda by continuing her hard and successful work for the betterment of the American people.”
A Department of Labor spokesperson told The Independent: “The department will not comment on internal or personnel matters. The secretary remains focused on carrying out the department’s mission and supporting American workers.”
The development comes after it was reported on January 9 that a formal complaint had been lodged against the secretary with the DOL’s inspector general, Anthony D’Esposito, in which she was accused of abusing her powers, retaining a stash of alcohol in her office, and having an extramarital affair with a subordinate.
The complaint alleged that Chavez-DeRemer’s Chief of Staff, Jihun Han, and Deputy Chief of Staff, Rebecca Wright, were “involved and have knowledge of these issues” and had also allegedly been tasked by the secretary with inventing work trips for her to go on where she could also spend time with friends and family.
Han and Wright were duly placed on temporary administrative leave three days later, a step that does not imply any wrongdoing on their part.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said of the probe into the complaint against Chavez-DeRemer: “I have spoken to the president about that report regarding the secretary.
“He’s aware of the internal investigation, and he stands by the secretary, and he thinks that she’s doing a tremendous job at the Department of Labor on behalf of American workers.”
The “travel fraud” allegations made in the complaint against the secretary, first reported by the Post, accused her of exploiting her stated aim of visiting all 50 states during her first year – which she was unable to realise in full because of the government shutdown, taking in only 37 – by favoring locations in which she had personal ties, including Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and Michigan.
The affair allegations against Chavez DeRemer concern alleged meet-ups in hotels and at her D.C. apartment with the unnamed staffer. During one encounter, the secretary allegedly told her security detail she did not need their protection.
The secretary’s husband, Dr Shawn DeRemer, has denied that his wife is unfaithful, telling the tabloid in a statement: “There’s not an ounce of truth to this, and anyone who knows my wife would know that.”
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